Sharpton slams police on violent arrest

May 8, 2008 6:02:02 PM PDT

By MARYCLAIRE DALE

PHILADELPHIA - May 8, 2008 --

The Rev. Al Sharpton called a videotaped police beating of three shooting suspects in Philadelphia "worse than Rodney King," prompting the city's police commissioner to chide anyone "fanning flames ... from afar." The civil rights activist made the comments Thursday as he interviewed the mother of one of the suspects on his radio show.

Thirteen police officers have been taken off street duty as police investigate the television news footage, according to Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman. The video shows officers kicking, punching and beating the three black men during a traffic stop Monday.

"I've not seen anything like that since Rodney King, and it's worse than Rodney King, and we cannot allow our community to be under siege," Sharpton said. "We've got to stop this nonsense in our community, acting like you got to be a certain level black to be treated within the law."

Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said he does not believe the confrontation was racially motivated, but instead thinks that tensions in the wake of the weekend slaying of a fellow officer played a part.

The beating occurred at the same time as police were conducting an intense manhunt for a suspect in the slaying of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, 39, who was killed responding to a bank robbery Saturday. He was the second city officer killed on the job in seven months.

At a news conference Thursday morning, Ramsey called the confrontation a "black eye" for the force and "an embarrassment to the entire department."

In an interview later in the day with The Associated Press, Ramsey said: "I know everybody's trying to make this into a racial thing. I don't believe it is."

"We just had a policeman murdered on Saturday ... and emotions are running high," he said.

"There's no excuse for it, but fanning flames, and making accusations from afar, is not in anybody's best interest," said Ramsey, who took over as commissioner in January after serving in the same role in Washington, D.C.

King, who is black, was videotaped being beaten by white Los Angeles police officers after he was stopped for speeding in 1991. Four officers were acquitted of most criminal charges in 1992, triggering rioting in Los Angeles and neighboring cities that left 55 people dead and caused $1 billion in property damage.

In the Philadelphia case, officers who stopped the car Monday night believed its occupants had been involved in a triple shooting a few blocks away. They included members of a narcotics unit working the area and patrol officers called in response to the shooting.

The three suspects - Dwayne Dyches, Brian Hall and Pete Hopkins, all of Philadelphia - were each charged with attempted murder and related counts in connection with the shooting, according to court records.

D. Scott Perrine, a lawyer representing the three suspects, has said his clients had nothing to do with the shooting, police had no reason to follow their car and the beating was unjustified.

Leomia Dyches complained to Sharpton on Thursday that she could not see her son when he was in the hospital.

Ramsey noted to the AP that he was in custody at the time, charged with attempted murder. All three suspects were treated at a hospital soon after the confrontation, Ramsey said, and they were being held Thursday in lieu of bail of $100,000 or more.

The commissioner pledged to send the department's preliminary investigation to the District Attorney's Office by next week. If prosecutors decline to file charges, he will deal with the officers involved internally, he said.

Ramsey said he did not know the race of all the officers on the scene - there were about 15 - but said that at least one sergeant involved is African-American.

The Internal Affairs unit is still working to enhance the tape and identify all of the officers in the footage, a department spokesman said.

Sharpton's remarks came a day after he was arrested along with hundreds of other demonstrators as he blocked traffic to protest the acquittal of three New York detectives who fatally shot an unarmed black man in on his wedding day.

Ramsey said the beating does not reflect the behavior of the whole Philadelphia department, and cast a shadow during a time that should have been focused on the period of mourning for Liczbinski, whose funeral will be held Friday.

Mayor Michael Nutter has also criticized the officers' behavior, calling it unacceptable.